Age of Adepts

War between dragon lords wasn’t rare, even in Lance.

The eternal theme of wars between human kingdoms was land, resources, and population. Here on Lance, the causes of war were all sorts of trivialities– things like not liking the look of another dragon, having been made fun of by a particular dragon, and the like.

With war comes victories and defeats!

As the direct subordinates of the dragon lords, the dragonborn were often the main forces fighting at the very front line. That meant that they often faced the difficult choice of being captured or being killed!

The dragonborn were slaves created by the dragon lords and were implanted with soul brands that made them forever loyal to their masters at the moment of their birth. Dragonborn like Zacha, who had their soul contract completely transferred, were extremely rare.

Dragonborn lords like him only usually became the servants of a new dragon lord once their own lord had lost the war. However, the first and foremost recipient of their loyalty would still be their old master, as long as their old master was still alive. That was why their new masters wouldn’t trust them either, instead choosing to use them to procure ransom from their original masters.

If the master of the defeated dragonborn refused to pay the ransom, then the new master would have the absolute right to do whatever they wished with the dragonborn. To kill them or sell them off; the new master decided everything.

The lives of the sixty-seven surviving dragonborn were entirely within the hands of their old and new masters the moment they put down their weapons and chose to be prisoners.

These dragonborn would never have so easily surrendered if it weren’t for the presence of Dragonborn Zacha, even if they were to bleed every last drop of their blood. Now that Zacha had defeated them with his own might, they dejectedly chose to become Zacha’s prisoners.

They chose to become Zacha’s prisoners! They did not surrender to the adepts!

Thus, Mary discovered upon descending from the sky that these dragonborn would always follow Zacha but refused to bow their heads to the adepts.

Damn! Half a day’s work and it was just recruiting an entourage of guards for Zacha!

Dragonborn Zacha had already respectfully appeared in front of Mary before she could unleash her anger.

”Lady Mary, though I know this might displease you, I still insist upon this. I wish to keep these dragonborn prisoners by my side and have them contribute their strength to Master’s cause!”

Mary stood on the spot, silently looking upon this bloodied and bowing dragonborn.

The battle earlier had done tremendous damage to the dragonborn.

His left arm was bent at an impossible angle and was clearly broken. The wind-indurium armor he was wearing had failed to endure the successive violent blows from the enemy as well. It had become scrap metal and was barely hanging onto Zacha’s body. His lower body, covered in fine blue scales, had also been repeatedly targeted by the enemy. Fifty-centimeter long gashes could be seen everywhere. Even the white bones underneath were exposed.

He might have won, but the wounds he suffered were no less than the dead and defeated Will.

Still, he had dragged along this broken body of his to appear before Mary. He held Will’s head tightly in his right hand as he respectfully bowed before Mary and requested mercy for these dragonborn prisoners!

A dragonborn striking this pose was equivalent to a human taking a knee.

Mary might not understand the etiquette of dragonborn, but she could sense Zacha’s sincerity through his actions.

Since Greem placed so much importance upon Zacha, she didn’t mind affording him this respect. It would be an excellent move to obtain his loyalty better as well.

A trace of gentleness and a smile appeared on Mary’s cold, beautiful face after some quick thought.

”Well, if that’s the case, then…”

Mary was just about to agree to Zacha’s ’request’ when a few disapproving voices rang out from amongst the ranks of the dragonborn prisoners.

”No way, we cannot place our fates in the hands of a dragonborn traitor. Look at him– your so-called great warrior is bowing before a weak human. This is humiliation. We cannot accept this.”

Zacha’s face went ashen.

Mary’s slightly smiling face instantly turned as cold as ice. Her eyes gleamed with a blood-red light.

Her eyes quickly swept through the crowd and instantly picked up on the owners of those voices.

Three dragonborn spellcasters!

Apart from the two deputy commanders and the dragonborn captains, there were also five spellcasters in the ranks of the surrendered soldiers. The ones that were stirring trouble now were three of those five dragonborn spellcasters.

Perhaps they had led lives that were too successful and easy, but they didn’t have the necessary wisdom to understand the situation they were in. They very foolishly chose to provoke Mary to fight for better treatment conditions for themselves.

It couldn’t be helped. As the leader of the adepts, Mary hadn’t fought even once since the start of the battle. Her slender, explosive figure and her delicate, pretty face caused other species to mistake her as a concubine of sorts easily.

That was why the three foolish dragonborn spellcasters had so recklessly started trouble!

The anger that had been accumulating in Mary’s heart over the past month finally erupted.

A nauseating and dense cloud of blood mist spread out around the crimson-armored Mary as Zacha and Eden’s faces turned pale. The previously clear figure transformed into a flash of red lightning. It instantly appeared in the middle of the three dragonborn spellcaster at speed indistinguishable to the naked eye.

A blood mist engulfed the entire area, blotting out the skies and covering the ground beneath.

All nearby dragonborn warriors were blown away by the blood mist except for the three dragonborn spellcasters. The three dragonborn spellcasters were by Mary’s side, but no one could see what was happening within the dense cloud of blood mist.

The panicked shouts and angered roars of the dragonborn spellcasters could be heard from outside, but even louder were the horrifying crunching sounds.

The three dragonborn spellcasters might have surrendered their weapons, but they weren’t weaklings that had lost all combat ability. They might be called spellcasters, but their physical strength wasn’t too far behind an ordinary dragonborn warrior. They could easily kill jaguars and boars with a single punch when they waved their scaled fists.

Unfortunately, the one they had provoked was the newly advanced Second Grade Vampire Adept Mary.

After the strengthening from the Blood Moon Prayer ceremony, the racial trait that Mary had obtained upon advancement into a pure-blood vampire was Blood Resonance!

Mary could perfectly sense all flowing blood within a hundred meters and could achieve a certain level of resonance with that blood. If the target creature was not protected by magic, then Mary could even cause their blood to boil.

It couldn’t actually be considered magic anymore. It was simply and purely a racial power.

All weak lifeforms would lose all ability to resist before Mary. She didn’t even need to lift a single finger. All she had to do was activate her racial power, and the opponent would die to their own boiling blood.

These three dragonborn spellcasters were taken down before they even had a chance to strike back!

Everything started to clear up as the dense blood mist slowly returned into Mary’s body.

The three dragonborn spellcasters had turned into three withered corpses. They lay upon the ground with not a trace of observable life within them. Mary lightly licked her bright red and seductive lips as she walked out of the mist with a look of satisfaction.

She was even softly wiping away the blood stains on her face with a pure white handkerchief as she walked.

The handkerchief had turned crimson red by the time she arrived before Zacha.

She turned around with the speed and force of a whirlwind and coldly asked with a harsh expression on her face,

”Does anyone else have an opinion?”

Her voice wasn’t very loud, but all the dragonborn prisoners shrunk backward out of fear.

Who would’ve thought, and who would’ve known that this seductive and beautiful human female adept was also a terrifying Second Grade. Moreover, the power she possessed was more than enough to obtain the respect of the dragonborn!

No wonder even a great dragonborn like Zacha would bow before her.

The dragonborn prisoners all lowered their heads. No one dared to look directly at this female adept.

”Bring them back!”

”The rest of you, clean up the battlefield.”

The remaining adepts and magical machines started to carefully and completely clean up the battlefield, while Zacha propped himself up and led the dragonborn back to the metal fortress.

The Crimson Clan had paid quite a considerable price for the victory in this battle. They would have to regain their losses through the spoils of war.

All destroyed magical machines had to be retrieved, regardless of the extent of the damage. Those that had sunken into the swamp had to be fished out as well. They might have lost their combat ability and were mostly left with only their empty shells, but they could be melted down and reforged if they were sent back to the metal fortress.

The fully functioning smelting factories, alloy workshops, and assembly lines of the metal fortress were also in great need of raw materials. Returning the damaged magical machines to the forges would undoubtedly help save plenty of metal ores.

The dragonborn corpses were also biological resources of great value.

The flesh of the wind dragonborn last time had produced decent wind indurium upon being combined with magical alloys. The indurium had provided the Crimson Clan with fairly large returns upon being transported back to the World of Adepts. There were even more fire dragonborn corpses this time. The Crimson Clan would be able to reap even more returns as long as they were able to create a suitable magical metal material with the corpses.

The Crimson Clan might appear to have suffered high losses in this battle, but these wastes could all be recuperated in a short amount of time. The metal fortress only needed around ten days at full operational capacity to replace the lost magical machines. All they had to do was clear up the battlefield and take all the spoils with them.

The only thing that the Crimson Clan had lost was some metal ores they had dug up from the depths of Azurelode.

Would they ever lack magical machines with such a rich mine right behind their backs?

The Crimson Clan had solidly established themselves upon Lance with this minor victory.